Thoughts on the Meaning of Education

It's difficult for me to encapsulate my definition of education because education is everywhere in everything. It is life. It's growth. It's improvement. Education is so much more than school (or home school), which is merely one structure from which we aim to become educated.

Education, to me, is placing ourselves, and those we are responsible for, on the path of eternal progression, and moving forward. All light and knowledge are part of this. There is no division between temporal and spiritual. All truth is God's truth. In this way, there is no end to education. There is no graduation from eternal progression.

Part of our eternal path, is to gain success in our earthly life. I feel that my role as a mother is to help my kids obtain success here that will prepare them for this life, and in turn, for the eternities.

This includes, but is not limited to:

1. Building Christlike attributes and character.
2. Loving and understanding the Gospel.
3. Being exposed to a broad base of knowledge, with deep understanding of topics of interest, talent, and passion.
4. Realizing personal life mission.
5. Possessing skills that will enable them to support themselves and their families when/if necessary.
6. Embracing God-given gender roles.

When people ask me what we do for home school, it's difficult for me to explain. We don't structure it like public school. It's a life style of learning. I like to call it Life Education.

Happy Learning!

Plastic Easter Egg Caterpillar

Do you still have plastic Easter Eggs hanging around?

Look at this cute craft my Bubs came up with.

It's as easy as it looks. Just string up your egg-halves, keeping them all the same direction until the last one. (You may have to make some of the holes bigger with a pen.) We used a nylon cord that doesn't stretch. It allows some movement but it doesn't allow for separation of the segments.

Make a little knot on each end and trim the excess.

Don't forget the happy face.  :)

The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker

The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker

I picked this one up on our last trip to the library, and I'm so glad I did. What a fun story! I'm going to add it right away to my list of clean fantasy romances for growing girls.

I don't know how I missed it until now, but the timing is right, because I just saw that a sequel is forthcoming this Fall.

Here's my Book Review: Princess Annabelle, known as Annie, is the younger sister of Gwendolyn (aka Sleeping Beauty). When the beautiful Gwendolyn pricks her finger on a spinning wheel, everyone in the castle falls asleep. Everyone except Annie, that is.

Annie isn't affected by magic. In fact, any magic near her grows increasingly weaker. The other royals despise her because their magical gifts of beauty and grace fade in her presence. Even her parents keep their distance.

Annie sets out on a quest to find Gwendolyn's true love, so she can wake her family. One adventure proceeds another as she travels through fairy tales.

Along the way, the meet a Hansel-and-Gretel-esk witch, an enchanted prince who is in the form of a bear, a swamp prince who used to be a frog, and a prince holding contests to find a bride.

Baker flips many fairy tales on their heads in this creative adventure.

I thought the witch mentioned above was kind of creepy. She was fattening up a couple children to eat them. Of course, Annie outwitted her, saving the children, and creating a pretty funny and entertaining scene.

As you can imagine, there is also quite a bit of talk about kissing. After all, it IS the only way to wake a sleeping princess.

I read this to my 8 and 6 year olds. They both loved it. We finished it a few days ago, and today my 6 year old girl, Welly, said, "I just keep thinking about The Wide-Awake Princess. I can't believe that..." Sorry. I can't tell you the rest. It would spoil the ending.  :)

Ask a Mormon

Great article about Mormon temples from an Episcopal Priest in the Huffington Post.

And there's an article about Mormon underwear here. But aren't undergarments kind of a personal matter, even if you are vying for President?

Do you have questions about some of the strange things you've heard about us? I'd be happy to answer them as best as I can.

I grew up in Southern California where members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormons) weren't terribly scarce or plentiful.

I certainly heard my share of strange questions, though.

No. I'm not hiding horns under my hair. And yes. Mormons are allowed to dance.

The worst thing was always when someone from another faith told me that they had "an ex-mormon" come speak to their congregation. You can bet that those probably aren't people who want to share a positive (or even completely truthful) view of us.

Motherhood: The Best Job

Car Bomb

Some days, everything goes as planned, albeit rarely. Today wasn't one of those days.

It started out fine. Better than fine, actually. The house was clean. We read a lot. Baby was happy. We ran some errands we'd been planning for days. We visited with an aunt and cousin from out-of-state.

And then the day started to wind down. I was tired, but milk and diapers are pretty essential. One more stop. Good old Wally-Marto. 

The kids were angels in the store. Super helpful ones. Putting things in the cart, bringing them to the register, placing them back in the cart, unloading them into the back of the car, putting the cart away...

A gallon of milk was placed on the ledge next to the back seat of the Suburban. (We won't place the blame.)

I saw it there, but it looked secure.

I was way wrong.

A light turned red on me rather suddenly, launching said gallon of milk forward, splitting the container in half, and literally creating a car bomb of humongous proportions. I was in the front (driving obviously) when I felt the cold, sticky spray. 

I considered throwing the jug out the window. What else was I going to do as it continued to glug, glug, glug out the side? Instead, we wrapped it in Y's blanket and held it in the safest position...upside down.

Y asked, "Why you using my ba-yanket?"

"Sorry, Honey. It's all we have."

It's going to stink to High Heavens.

But my angel boy, Bubs, sure did his best to help get the car clean.

And how do you think My Robby reacted to the news?

He laughed!

I said, "You're laughing about this?"

His answer: "Well, one of us has to."

Smiling, Happy Faces

Let's be honest. One of the reasons I love to homeschool, is so that I can see these smiling, happy faces any time I want!

I am quite biased, but I LOVE these four faces. And I LOVE being their mama.

And yes, being a stay-at-home mom is work...the most rewarding kind.